An American Bugatti Veyron owner has proved that the world's fastest supercar does not make an effective speedboat, after driving his hypercar into a saltwater lagoon near Galveston in Texas.

The owner (who apparently wished to remain anonymous - surprise, surprise) was distracted by a low-flying Pelican (we hate it when that happens) as he was heading north on Interstate 45.

As a result, the hapless fellow jerked the wheel, dropped his mobile and the car veered onto the muddy verge before plunging into the lagoon and coming to rest in approximately two feet of salty water.

He escaped with no injuries. Just an empty wallet.

Source: PistonHeads

The U. S. Patent and Trademark Office this week approved a new winged logo for the Chrysler brand, according to the Detroit Free Press.

As reported last month by Allpar.com, Chrysler appears to be preparing to tweak the winged badge that has branded its cars since the mid 1990s. The new logo keeps the wings, albeit a streamlined version of them, and centers the word "Chrysler" between the spans, resting in a field of blue.

Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne will unveil his 5-year plan for Chrysler today during a day-long press event. It is unclear whether he will confirm Chrysler's new badge -- or whether there will be any changes to the corporate pentastar.

Source: Automotive News

Mechanics were supposed to be fixing a leaky radiator, but when the owner of a £30,000 Vauxhall Monaro car collected it from the local garage, he discovered it had been taken on a joyride at speeds of 125mph

The owner of the car, who doesn't want to be named, had installed a Roadhawk black-box recorder three months earlier.

When he left his car for repair at the garage in Redditch, there was a quarter of a tank of petrol left. When he collected it, he noticed the tank was empty.

"I looked at the video from the Roadhawk and was completely stunned. They had taken it out for a spin on the A435 at 120mph.

"When I confronted the garage they denied it. Then I told them I had the video and they admitted everything and apologised."

The Roadhawk device records video, GPS data and g-forces for every journey.

Video captured during the incident, which has been posted on YouTube, shows the driver overtaking cars and lorries on the A435 Alcester Road between Redditch to Portway.

The vehicle speeds past a garage at 100mph, before hitting a narrow slip-road at 90mph and continuing through country lanes.

The owner said: "The outside of that lane is marked off and lorries sometimes park up there. If you go wide on that corner at that speed you could easily slam into the back of one."

The 5.7 litre Vauxhall Monaro has a top-speed of 170mph and won Top Gear's best Muscle Car award. West Mercia police confirmed they are investigating the incident. The owner of the garage said he had seen the video but refused to comment.

Say hello to a new British supercar that will run you a whopping £320,000 ($533,066 USD) – the Arash AF-10.

Power comes from GM’s 7.0L V8 found under the hood of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 that has been retuned to produce 505-hp with a maximum torque of 475 lb-ft. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual Graziano gearbox. No performance figures have been released as of yet, but the Arash AF-10 can hit a top speed of 220 mph.

Arash has no plans of stopping there. In the future, the firm will offer an AF-10S with a supercharged and intercooled version of the 7.0L V8 that will make 800-hp. Another top-of-the-line version is planned that will produce 1,001-hp to compete with the likes of the Bugatti Veyron.

Loris Bicocchi, the man who helped develop the Koenigsegg, Bugatti Veyron and the KTM X-Bow has been signed up to do the development work, which will kick off in 2010.

Source: eGMCarTech

British supercar make Keating has announced that its Keating TKR has become the fastest production car in the world (unofficially). The car, which made its debut at this year’s MPH Show featuring Top Gear Live at London’s Earls Court, is capable of hitting a top speed of 260.1 mph – that’s 3 mph more than the existing title holder, the Shelby Aero TT. It also beats the Bugatti Veyron by 7 mph.

Power for Keating TKR comes from a 7.0L engine that is capable of producing 1,800-hp. Other technical details will be made available at a later date.

The top speed record was done at the Salt Lake Flats in California last month. Keating must hit 260.1 mph once again for the Guinness Book of World Records to make it official.

Last we heard, Shelby Supercars said that its 2009 Ultimate Aero is gunning for a world-record speeds of 270 mph, topping its current record of 257 mph. Seems like they have some competition from Keating.

Source; eGMCarTech

n what we think is a good decision, General Motors said that its other plug-in hybrid offerings will not have Volt branding on them to identify with the compact plug-in hybrid that will launch later next year. By contrast, Toyota is planning to make a family of hybrid vehicles that will carry the Prius badging.

“Our thought is to take the Volt technology to other products,” Brent Dewar, chief of global operations for Chevrolet said. “The Volt was the original vehicle that we started, but I wouldn’t see that as a brand marketing direction for us.”

Dewar said that the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid would pave the way for more vehicles based on the same Voltec technology; however, the Volt name will not be found anywhere on GM’s future electric-vehicles.

Source: eGMCarTech

That was the exact word Lutz emphasized to Inside Line when asked whether or not we'll ever see a twin-turbo Chevrolet Camaro.

It was far from an admission of intent, but it does confirm the fact that Chevrolet is looking very closely at the idea. Lutz also confirmed a production version of the Camaro Synergy concept shown at SEMA as well as an all-black special-edition model.

Leaving the door open about a twin-turbo Camaro didn't come as too much of a surprise though. It was only a couple weeks ago that Chevrolet rolled out a twin-turbo V6 Camaro for Jay Leno at SEMA. Jay said it produced around 425 horsepower, so the potential is there for a serious Z28, perhaps.

Source: InsideLine

What you’re looking at here is a modern interpretation of the Plymouth Road Runner based on the 2009 Dodge Challenger with a 6.1L HEMI turbocharged V8 engine. The concept is being put together by an independent designer Michael Leonhard, who is selling the car once he’s done building it.

The 6.1 HEMI turbocharged V8 allows for a total of 620-hp with a maximum torque of 650 lb-ft. 0-60 mph should come in 3.8 seconds.

Even before it’s built, Leonhard has put the one-off model up for grabs on eBay with a Buy it Now price tag of $950,000. Of course, you want to be careful before you go spending close to a million on this car since Leonhard says “in order to improve the finished product, changes to the design may occur during the building process.”

Source: eBay via eGMCarTech

Introducing the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray - Gray - , featured in our Other Vehicle Parts department. This product generally ships within 2 business day(s) from Pinellas Park, Florida, and weighs 2 pound(s). Attaches to your steering wheel for easy access to a writing and drink storage surface. The Go Office Wheel Mate Steering Wheel Desk is flat for writing and perfect for lunch or a snack. This Go Office Wheel Mate Steering Wheel Desk stores neatly in your car when used with the larger Auto Exec Laptop Car Desk. For safety reasons, never use this product while driving. Easily convert your car into your personal automobile office with the Wheel Mate car desk by MobileOffice.

Enjoy the pictures and reviews in the link!

Source: Amazon

Earlier in July, Bob Lutz confirmed that the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe is on the way with a possibility of a CTS-V Sport Wagon. It was later confirmed by an ‘inside source’ that CTS-V lineup will be extended to the Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon. Today, CARandDRIVER is reporting that Bob Lutz has confirmed a production CTS-V Sport Wagon, bringing more validity to the report.

An excerpt from CARandDRIVER:Source: eGMCarTech

Just before 2008 came to an end, Zenvo Automotive and Danish Design unveiled the new Zenvo ST1, a 1,104-hp supercar with some very aggressive looks. Well, today we get a more detailed look at the Zenvo ST1 along with some new high-res photos.

Power comes from a 7.0L V8 Bio Flex engine (98 octane or E85 or both combined) with a supercharger and a turbocharger. The combination allows for a total output of 1,104-hp with a maximum torque of 1,054 lb-ft. 0-62 mph comes in 3 seconds flat with a top speed that is limited to 233 mph. The engine is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox but Zenvo also offers the ST1 with an automatic gearbox with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters.

On the inside, owners of the Zenvo ST1 can enjoy a 7 1/2 inch screen for navigation use, to play DVDs and to use the rear view camera system. The audio system has iPod/Mp3 player capability and CD/AM/FM options. Other options include a start engine button, cruise control, keyless go, power seats and power locks.

Zenvo Automotive will only produce 15 units of the ST1 so if you want one you better contact them quick.

Source: eGMCarTech

Mazda Motor Corp. will reduce its vehicle weights by at least 220 pounds beginning in 2011, with a combination of lighter-weight materials, smaller vehicle footprints and new engineering processes, a top executive says.

The typical Mazda vehicle has gained 80 pounds with each successive redesign, “mostly in larger tires and wheels, and safety equipment,” said Robert Davis, senior vice president of product development and quality for Mazda North American Operations.

For example, the curb weight of a base 2003 Protege sedan was 2,634 pounds. The Protege evolved into the redesigned, 2,696-pound Mazda3 sedan in 2004 and ballooned into the 2010 Mazda3, which weighs 2,868 pounds.

Reducing a vehicle's curb weight by 220 pounds will improve its fuel economy 3 to 5 percent, Davis said in a speech here to the Motor Press Guild.

Source: AutoWeek

Ferrari is considering using turbocharging in future engines, but it needs to improve the forced induction technology before it will make its cars available with the set-up. Ferrari engine developer Jean-Jacques His said the biggest problem the firm faced was lag.

“Turbocharging will come eventually, but we need to solve the issue of turbo lag,” he told Autocar. He went on to explain that a delay of any sort before the power arrived was unacceptable for a Ferrari engine.

It’s unlikely that Ferrari will be using Multiair, the Fiat Group’s variable valve technology, any time soon, though. His said Ferrari had tried applying the system to an F430’s V8 but couldn’t get it to work at the power outputs required.

“The main benefit from Multiair comes in torque,” he said, “and it is difficult to get it to work at high revs.”

His also said Ferrari’s dual-clutch transmission, currently only available in V8-engined Ferraris, was suitable for V12 cars and would work up to 10,000rpm.

Source: Autocar

Two armored Secret Service vehicles, a Chevrolet Suburban and a limousine that belong to Vice President Biden's fleet, hit and killed a pedestrian just over the D.C. border in Maryland. The accident happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the vehicles were being returned from Andrews Air Force Base to a secure storage location. No dignitaries were on board.

The man was crossing at an intersection on Maryland's Suitland Parkway under rainy conditions at 2:27 a.m., the Washington Post reported.

The limousine and Suburban had been used on the vice president's visit to Fort Lewis in Washington State, where he attended and spoke at a memorial service for seven soldiers based there who were killed in Afghanistan. Following the service, as is customary, the vehicles were flown back to Andrews. The vehicles are both armored and therefore must be driven by specially trained employees who have taken a "protective operator's driving course," the Post reported. The paper quoted Secret Service spokesman as saying the armor protection makes them "tricker to handle than ordinary vehicles."

U.S. Park Police are currently investigating the accident.

Source: InsideLine

Today's concept study comes to us from Marouane Bembli, a 23-year old industrial design student from Sweden. The futuristic-looking supercar was designed as a 'halo' vehicle for Audi that would in theory, either sit atop or replace altogether the current R8 in the automaker's model range.

"I've designed what I believe will be Audi's new supercar, the R10", Bembli told Car Magazine. "It features a mid-mounted V10 engine and a dry weight of 1200kg. I hope you like it!"

Well, minus the proportions of the passenger cabin area that looks way too small when compared to the rest of the body, we must say that we find the R10 Concept pretty impressive.

Source: CarScoop